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Forty-one years ago on an autumn night in College Park, Md., the landscape of college basketball changed forever. On October 15, 1971, legendary college basketball coach Lefty Driesell and his staff drove their cars around midnight to Byrd Stadium at the University of Maryland campus. The sky was as dark as the night was late, but the tireless competitor Driesell had a plan to maximize the amount of time that the NCAA bylaws allowed his team to practice so it could achieve the success he believed to be possible.

Throughout his career, Driesell--the only NCAA basketball coach to win at least 100 games at four different colleges (Maryland, Davidson, James Madison and Georgia State)--began the first practice of a season in the same fashion: by requiring each player to run one mile in less than six minutes. If a player did not meet the six minute mark on the first day of practice, Driesell required him to repeat the challenge each day until he met the feat. "If we practiced at 3 p.m., we ran the mile at 3 p.m. and started practice at 4 p.m. It always messed up my first practice because they were tired," Driesell explained.

Lefty Driesell gives his patented "V-sign" during his first season as the head coach at the University of Maryland (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

With the lights of their cars serving as the only illumination of the track surrounding Byrd Stadium, Driesell and his coaching staff had no idea that their plan to get the most productivity out of a Terrapins team featuring the likes of future NBA stars Len Elmore, John Lucas and Tom McMillen, would turn into one of the most highly anticipated annual events in college basketball. "The rule was you could start practice one minute past midnight on October 15. I said, 'Why don’t we run the mile one minute past midnight on October 15, so we could have a better practice that afternoon?'" And with that idea, Midnight Madness was born. Driesell explains that he and his coaching staff were positioned at each corner of the track, their car lights shining on the players' path. He chuckles when reminiscing over being told that him Elmore cut corners around the dark portions of the track. "[Elmore] said he didn't. I couldn't see, though, because the lights didn't light up everything."

Three years into his tenure at Maryland in 1971, Driesell concocted a plan that not only ensured that a mile-long run wouldn't jeopardize his practice plans. He created an event that would spur business opportunities not only for teams, but also networks, some four decades later.

Today, top NCAA basketball programs from Kentucky to Kansas and Syracuse to North Carolina will host Midnight Madness events. The Driesell coaching tree--which includes Lefty's son, Chuck Driesel (head coach at The Citadel) and his grandson, Michael Moynihan (an assistant coach at Young Harris College)--will likewise continue their patriarch's tradition. Each respective program's Midnight Madness event creates program-building and business opportunities. In 2012, teams build upon the strength of their programs through Midnight Madness events by inviting recruits to attend well-attended and professionally executed events, that are routinely sponsored by corporations including McDonald's and PNC. "It's important for recruits to attend the Midnight Madness, so that they can see the excitement a school's students share for a program," Moynihan explained. Midnight Madness events are similarly able to assist programs in creating business opportunities by cultivating new fans for a program, whether in the form of boosters or students. "More than anything, Midnight Madness is about getting students excited. At the end of the day, you need students to attend your games, because they are the best and most loyal fans," Moynihan said.

As the number of programs hosting Midnight Madness events has grown, so has the number of spectators at the events. On the inaugural Midnight Madness event, Driesell estimates that 2,000 students found their way into the seats at Byrd Stadium to watch Maryland's first-ever nationally-ranked basketball team engage in its first practice of the season. In 1972, Terrapins player Maurice Howard suggested that the team engage in a scrimmage for Midnight Madness. That event drew around 8,000 fans. By 1973, Driesell says that all seats were filled for the team's Midnight Madness event. In 2012, teams like Kansas expect to draw 16,300 fans to their Midnight Madness events and most other top basketball programs expect to sell out their arenas. While most programs do not charge admission for Midnight Madness, large turnouts nonetheless pose the opportunity to churn revenue in the form of merchandise and concession sales at the arena.

Four decades after Driesell relied on headlights to illuminate his Midnight Madness practice, the face of the event has drastically changed. In 2012, Midnight Madness events often feature bright lights, fog machines, and performances by major recording artists. Unlike in October 1971, Midnight Madness, when spectators only found their way to the event by noticing car lights shining on Byrd Stadium, in 2012, Midnight Madness is a nationally broadcast event. This year, ESPNU will dedicated four hours of coverage to schools' Midnight Madness activities. Len Elmore, who may or may not have cut corners while running around the track on that first Midnight Madness will even serve as an ESPNU commentator during the network's coverage.

The magnitude Midnight Madness has reached since that autumn night in 1971 isn't lost on Driesell. He points out that other programs have not only followed his lead, but that, "Department stores have even created Midnight Madness sales. I should have trademarked it!" While he recognizes that over time the adaptation of his practice method has become increasingly grandiose, Driesell believes that flashy and large-scale Midnight Madness events benefit college basketball's growth and popularity. "I think it’s great myself. It gets you excited. Right now, I pick up the sports page everyday looking for a college basketball story and there’s nothing there--it’s all NFL or MLB stories. The big Midnight Madness events gets students fired up and interested in basketball," Driesell said. However, Driesell believes that programs hosting their events earlier than midnight (as most do these days) miss an opportunity to fully market their program to students. "Midnight is when college students are ready to roll. None of the programs are filling up the arenas with students like they used to when they hosted the event at midnight," Driesell argued. Asked if he would stay up until midnight to attend a Midnight Madness event, the 80-year-old Driesell promptly replies, "If it was a team I was interested in, I would!" Luckily for Lefty, because of the popularity of the event he created, he'd have many friends to watch with.